Troy trying to regain its winning ways

Troy head coach Larry Blakeney, shown at a recent workout, says his team has shown increased maturity this season. (Kevin Glackmeyer)

Barry Valcin couldn't believe the nightmare was beginning again.

Two days before Troy's 2010 season opener. Valcin broke a bone in his right leg and dislocated his right ankle, forcing him to miss the entire season. Prior to his freshman year in 2007 at Texas' Kilgore College, Valcin broke his left ankle and missed the season.

Granted a medical redshirt, the sixth-year senior from Port Arthur, Texas, is back with metal plates and screws in both ankles.

Valcin's problems last year mirrored the Trojans, who suffered their first losing season since 2005 and failed to finish atop the Sun Belt standings for the first time in five years.

"It was tough," Valcin said. "I wasn't back at 100 percent last year and I had to deal with the pain in my ankle. I was trying to adjust to all that and get back to the level I was before I got hurt."

The 5-foot-11, 200-pound Valcin is in the mix for playing time at safety, which should be one of the strengths of a defense that has to get better. Three players in addition to Valcin have experience at safety.

The linebacker position has been strong during preseason work with Kanorris Davis, Brannon Bryan and Dimitri Miles.

TROY TROJANS
QUICK LOOK
2011 record -- 3-9, 2-6 Sun Belt.
Coach -- Larry Blakeney, 22nd season
Number of returning starters -- 9 offense, 7 defense
Top returning players -- Corey Robinson (QB), Brynden Trawick (DB), Eric Thomas (WR), Kanorris Davis (LB)
Troy will win the Sun Belt championship if -- the play by the defensive front seven gets better. Last year's starting safeties accounted for more than 25 percent of the tackles and that's not a good number. On offense, the running game has to take pressure off the passing attack.
Troy will not win the Sun Belt championship game if -- it can't get a good showing by both its offense and defense in the same game. Last year, either unit on its own might have played well enough to win games, but when one was up, the other was down.
What they're selling
Team accountability -- on and off the field.
Troy coach Larry Blakeney reiterated the need for team accountability after some selfishness and individualism from last year's group added to the disastrous season. The Trojan Challenge featured groups of players captained by team leaders with a point system instituted for good works.
There were 6 a.m. workouts, various physical challenges, community service and a renewed push for academic responsibility.
The effort produced the most hours of community service ever and overall improved grades.
"We got great participation from our kids and support staff," Blakeney said. "We've gone all out to make sure we look at ourselves in the mirror and it has shown up in the work ethic, in community service and a lot of areas."

The Trojans tweaked the overall scheme and will probably run a three-man front this season since defensive linemen are hard to find. They've brought in several junior college signees to shore up the front, but the recent loss of tackle John Clarke to academics is a big blow.

They'll build around two-year defensive tackle starter Tony Davis, who has moved to end.

The alignment switch puts a hybrid linebacker/lineman at the end opposite Davis. Jacoby Thomas and Hoover's Tyler Roberts are battling for the position.

"We've started to fly around out there," Valcin said. "We're stressing the concept of running to the ball and playing hard every snap this year. I think Troy is starting to get back to that defense we're used to."

While defense has been problematic for the Trojans over the past two seasons -- Troy gave up more than 30 points a game both years -- the offense predicated some of that, scoring only 22.4 points a game last year. That was almost a two-touchdown difference from 2010.

Junior quarterback Corey Robinson returns after completing 316 of 508 passes for 3,411 yards and 21 touchdowns. Misfiring with last year's inexperienced receivers resulted in 15 interceptions, but this year's group is deeper and older, and senior Chip Reeves is back after missing last season because of academics.

The offensive line, anchored by Kyle Wilborn, is a work in progress.

The key will be the running game, where the Trojans managed only 1,064 yards, spread mostly among Shawn Southward, D.J. Taylor and Chris Anderson. All three return.

"We weren't very good at all running the ball and certainly not good enough to win football games," said veteran Troy coach Larry Blakeney. "Our schemes, I think, are good enough if our players are good enough and I think they are. We're still a spread team, but sometimes we looked like jelly when we tried to run it."

Putting it all together, Valcin sees improvement in every area for a team that won or shared the league title five straight seasons before last year.

"We're hungry this year. We lost a lot of ground last year and we want to regain our title, get Troy back where they're supposed to be."

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Don't miss The Birmingham News, The Huntsville Times and the Press-Register's college football preview section Sunday, Aug. 26, where we're "Kicking off the campaign: Football and politics have much in common."